Sunday, August 18, 2013

After Colonia Tovar we headed back to Maracay. The bus station there looks super dodgy. There is
rubbish everywhere and you just think “oh God” getting off the bus. However, it
is also the best bus station in Venezuela (I think) cos there are heaps of markets and
food and there’s even an airconditioned waiting room, which is good when people actually close the fucking door! While we waited for
the bus I bought my third pair of headphones (South America is rough on
headphones. Tip, if you come here don’t bring expensive ones) and some of my
favourite local food, torrejas. Yum!

Finally our bus arrived and it was not the buscama we were
expecting. Although nowhere competes with Argentina for overnight buses (they
are luxury but so expensive), there are some pretty comfortable ones around and
some are definitely better than others. Not this one though, it was pretty shit and barely had any leg room at all. And that's coming from me - who's 152cm!

At around midnight the police stopped us for an ID check. The police
came on and woke everyone up but then only checked the African decent guys and
my Asian friend. Hmm, racial profiling much? And who are they looking for
anyway? Capitalists? Venezuela is not at war with anyone. And why Yuna? That makes no sense.

We then stopped for breakfast at 3.15am. Despite being a
ridiculous time (although I guess it’s more about the driver than the
passengers) it was nice to get off the freezing bus and stretch out our now
dead legs.

After getting no sleep (which I why I don’t take night buses
if I can help it) we arrived into Ciudad Boliver at about 8.30am and Yuna and I
were immediately approached by the guy from Conexion Tours to see if we wanted
to go Angel Falls. I’d read about this company on trip advisor. Apparently they
were super dodgy a few years ago, but have cleaned up their act more recently.
Anyway, I knew how much other people had paid to go, and the guy offered us a
really good deal so we bought the tour with him.

Angel Falls

To see Angel Falls you need to buy a tour. Its location is
quite remote and you can’t get there on your own. All the tours are three days
and pretty much have the same activities, but the prices vary between tour companies.

A shit car came to pick us up to drive us to the airport. No door handle means no escaping. Also, that lock looks like it's seen better days.

I think this chain is holding the front seat in place.

The first part of the tour involves taking a small plane
(like 4-6 seats) from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima. This takes about an hour or so
and is quite a nice journey.

We then joined another tour group and headed up the Carrao River in
motorised canoe for about four hours. Now I had told the company that I was
vegan, and they’d written and highlighted on my ticket what this meant.
However, when we had our lunch on the boat they hadn’t bothered to make me anything. Um, since when did being vegan mean not eating anything? Anyway, after digging around in a
plastic bag for a few minutes, the guide found some unused bread rolls and gave
me one. So my lunch was a white bread roll and coke (since water was not offered).
Two things I rarely eat. My water was in my bag which I couldn’t access since
the guide told us to carry our cameras only. Stupid, I should not have listened
to him. Anyway, lunch aside this was one of my favourite parts of the trip. The
landscape was so beautiful, and you get to see the tepuis (flat top mountains) up close.

The river looks like red wine from all the tannins in the vegetation. Sadly it's not.

Here's some rocks we narrowly avoided.

Towards the end and depending on the weather, you then get your first glimpse
of Angel Falls. It was pissing down rain when we arrived so the view wasn't that great. You could just see it through all the cloud.

When we arrived at our destination, the walk to Angel
Falls is about an hour through the jungle. We could access our bags again (hooray) and we were told to change into proper walking shoes. The
guides also said bring headlamps/ torches if you have one. So at 4pm we head
off through the jungle. Finally we arrive at the lookout point.

Angel Falls is impressive in that it is just under a
1km drop. That is long! However, it doesn’t have the wow factor of Iguazu Falls. But you should still go see it if you’re in
Venezuela cos it is beautiful and definitely worth the effort.

You can then walk another 10 minutes to a swimming area at
the bottom of the falls. The water was really cold so I didn’t go in. Instead I
stood around and got eaten by giant mosquitoes. Yeah, that was a much better idea.

When it started to get dark some of us wanted to head back since it is
darker walking through the jungle. It did not take long before it was
completely dark. The tour guide walked with us and about half the people had
headlamps. It was pretty dangerous walking through the jungle when you could not see
the path and there were a lot of things you could trip over. Plus all the puddles I'd avoided on the way up, I now stood in. I was very
concerned I was going to fall and sprain my ankle again. One girl with the
other tour group did actually fall and hurt herself quite badly. When we
arrived at the river where the canoes had dropped us off originally, we had to
cross the river. This was even more dangerous. We were walking along slippery
rocks in a river in the dark. WTF is that?I was very unimpressed that the guides thought
that it was acceptable to make people walk through the jungle and the river in
the dark especially without providing everyone with appropriate lighting. Anyway
we got to the campsite and dinner was more or less ready, which was good.
Unlike lunch, they actually made me a decent meal.

The camp has no electricity and you sleep in hammocks. Most
people went to bed reasonably early since there was nothing to do, but the
guides all stayed up drinking and making noise so that made it hard to sleep.
The temperature drops quite a bit during the night so you also wake up cold at some point.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast and for a
brief minute the clouds parted and we got one last look at Angel Falls before
getting back in the canoes and heading back to Canaima. I am glad I took all my
photos yesterday, cos it was very cloudy today and it rained quite a bit.

When we back to Canaima and we walked back to the
posada we were staying at. However, the Brazilian couple and I stopped for a few
minutes at a lookout point to take some photos while the rest of the group
continued on.

When we got back to the town, the group was nowhere in sight and
we had not been told where we were staying. Our guide did not come looking for
us. It turns out he’d gone to the airport to get the next group of tourists. We
wandered around a bit and then found some people we knew and they told us where
to go. I thought this was shit that our guide hadn’t bothered to check the
whole group had made it to the posada (or even told us the name of it).

After lunch our guide
took us and the new group of people to Salto el Sapo, a nearby waterfall you
can walk behind. While we were waiting on the beach, some massive black clouds
came in.

Half way across the lake, it absolutely pissed down and we were all
soaked by the time we got off the boat five minutes later. The guide continued
though. We started walking along another jungle path. However, you could not
see it since it had become a river about 10cm deep. This was very dangerous
since you couldn’t see the rocks or tree roots etc. We complained it was too
dangerous to walk on and he decided to take us back to the posada.

Basically it pissed down rain for the rest of the afternoon
so there was no much to do except read and wait for dinner. For me, this was a
plate of pasta. That’s it. No sauce, nothing. Just a plate of pasta. I was
not impressed at all. Another Conexion Tours meal fail!

The next morning we got up early and tried a second attempt
at Salto el Sapo. The weather was nice and sunny and it was much better.

Looking at the path in dry weather, there was no way we could have safely done
this yesterday. Another guide fail!

Walking behind a waterfall was pretty excellent. At first
you didn’t get too wet, but then there was basically a wall of water you needed
to pass through so if you weren’t wet already, you got wet then. You need to put your camera in a plastic bag or leave it behind.

Then we walked to the top of the waterfall. We were told to wear socks while walking behind the
waterfall on the rocks because they give you grip. I didn’t believe this until
we were there. But it’s true. Walking on wet rocks in socks makes them not
slippery at all. Amazing! You do look like a total dork in a bikini and socks though.

We headed back and had breakfast and basically had free time
until our flights back to Ciudad Bolivar at 1.30pm. The guide left with new
people for Angel Falls after telling us that we would get lunch before we left
for the airport. However, lunch was late and we ended up
leaving before finishing. No one was there to walk us to the airport (it is a
5-10 minute walk since the town is very small). Thankfully someone remembered
the way since it's not obvious. Another fail!

When we got to the airport (which is basically a cafe and a
landing strip, there’s no security) the main organising person asked us to find
our pilots from the trip to here. I didn’t’ know which one was ours but the
Brazilians did and he recognised me, so that was good. This really is not what you want to see when you're in a plane - fuel gauges on empty!

I could see the Ciudad Bolivar landing strip and
hoped we would make it. I was looking at the dashboard to see if any flashing
fuel warning lights were about to come on. When we landed the fuel gauge went up a bit, so I’m guessing
the angle of the plane was contributing to this.

Then it was back to the posada.

Ciudad Bolivar.

Ciudad Bolivar is ok and a reasonable city to hang out in if
you need a few days to organise your shit. There are several cheap posadas with
good internet, plenty of shops and restaurants and a bunch of tour operators
who speak English. Yuna and I ended up spending a total of three nights here.

On the first day we were here (before Angel Falls) we walked around being tourists. The old city is fairly attractive but it's really hot and for some reason we always seem to be out walking in the middle of the day. Urgh. Stupid tourists!

However, he decided that he would walk
around with us and look for another veggie place. I told him there was nothing
else listed on the internet or in the guide books. That didn’t deter him. So we
start walking around and he’s asking people on the street if they know where
any vegetarian restaurants are. Of course no knows cos no one is vegetarian
here. After a while, Yuna and I just wanted to leave. Lonely Planet mentioned
an Arab restaurant that did good cheap falafals and we wanted to go there but
we needed to check the address, which meant going back to the posada. This guy
would not let us leave. He then phoned some restaurant to ask if they had
veggie food and then he drew us the most detailed map ever of where we could
get every kind of food in Ciudad Bolivar. We just had to thank him and then
walk off in the end. It got really awkward. Although that didn’t stop me trying
to eat in the restaurant again after Angel Falls, but it was still closed. Hmm, this seems typical of Venezuelan businesses (read on).

After getting back from Angel Falls and before leaving for
Santa Elena I needed to get laundry done. The guy at the posada knew a laundry so he took me there. We get there and him and the woman start having a
conversation that turned a bit heated. It turns out they weren’t doing laundry
that day. The posada guy was
annoyed cos this is the second time he’s brought a guest here and they’ve
said “no laundry today”. WTF? You run a laundry. Washing and drying clothes is your sole purpose!

Later that day I went to buy some snacks for my Roraima
trip based on advice from the German lesbians I’d met in Angel Falls. I didn’t know what Santa Elena would
be like for vegan snacks and I knew where I could get some here. This fairly
big shop also sold some good headlamps for a good price in bolivars. I thought this would be better than my stupid torch that doesn’t light up anything.
However, they were locked in a cabinet so I had to ask someone to open it. The
guy disappears for 10 minutes (first I wasn’t sure if he was coming back). When he returns, he first talks to one of mates who had just come in (hey don't mind me, I have nothing better to do), then he comes
over to me and says he can’t find the key and walks off. Right. So everything
of value in this store is locked up and now they can’t sell any of the items because the key is lost?
No wonder Venezuela’s economy is so fucked. There's no private incentive! So far, I've had no veggie food, no laundry, no headlamp. This country is a joke. Bah!This
supermarket is near the posada and always has a line outside. At first I thought it
was a bank but then someone told me people line up everyday to see if toilet
paper comes in. So this people, is a toilet paper line.

Shit car of the day.

So despite the shit food and danger the guides put the group in to visit Angel Falls, it was totally worth it because it's such an amazing place. I recommend going. Maybe look for a more reputable tour operator and don't decide on one when you've just got off a night bus.

Ciudad Bolivar is fine. It feels safe and is a good place to hang out for a few days before or after your trip. I would suggest finding a posada with an in house laundry service though since the only one in town is clearly unreliable.

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About Me

I loved South America so much when I was here in summer 2011-12, I saved my money and came back. I then travelled Central and South America for a year, trying to improve my Spanish and remain vegan. The goal of this blog is to report the good, the bad, and the funny, and hopefully provide some useful advice to other travellers who stumble across it.